Better The Devil You Know
by Kate-Emma
Summary: It might be the end of time, but no one told Karen Nadler… from invasion day to a puppet of the aliens, this is the story of how Karen went from Winthrop High's only survivor to narrator of the end of the world…
1. Of War And Peace

**Disclaimer: **Falling Skies owned by someone cool. War of the Worlds owned by another cool person. I'm not either. Awwww.

**A/N: **Because aliens just aren't fun unless they're ruining your life. And also because alien invasions just aren't fun without the badass chick.

Better The Devil You Know

Karen Nadler

It might be the end of time, but no one told Karen Nadler… from invasion day to a puppet of the aliens, this is the story of how Karen went from Winthrop High's only survivor to narrator of the end of the world…

…

**Part 1:  
><strong>Of War and Peace

"…Wells knew that to heighten our fear he had to threaten us on two levels: to scare our species and as ourselves. So he made it clear from the very beginning that the Martians possess an infallible intelligence and technology," Derek Price paused as a student in the back row yawned loudly. A few laughed but the English teacher quickly turned on them with a cold look on her face. The class fell quiet. "Uh, anyway…" Derek shuffled his notes nervously before he continued. "Essentially we needed to know that whatever we could come up with to counterattack, they had already dreamed up and eliminated. Their power has only one certainty: We are going to lose. To struggle is futile. No noble self-sacrifice, no human pluck, no God-inspired underdog story can save us. This is no proverb. Goliath is stomping all over David. We soon realise – we are going to suffer personally. We each have to say to ourselves that our flesh is going to melt, our bones are going to break, we are going to have unimaginable pain and then we will die."

The blonde in the back row raised her hand slowly. "Ms. Henderson. In the current environment, what with that shiny big black thing hanging over town," she motioned up to the alien ship. "Do you really think this is the best topic of conversation? I mean, I'm all for HG Wells and some big metal machines, I've seen the Spielberg movie, Dakota Fanning is adorable, but… really?" She cleared her throat to continue as Derek Price turned a beetroot shade of embarrassed red. "And all this about 'we are going to lose'? Now, I'm not sure I remember everything, but in the end don't humanity survive? Don't we prevail? Because those suckers," she motioned to the book in Derek's hand though she was tempted to point at the alien ship outside again. "Overestimate themselves. Underestimate the little things that humanity takes for granted – love, illness and the unwavering need to wake up tomorrow." She shrugged. "And that message is what you need to talk about in this book report Price. How each person in that story, even the mentally unstable curate and the nutty artilleryman, were desperate to change what the Martians had accepted as fact." She glanced at the rest of her class. "And let me tell you now – if those bastards up there came down here to ruin things, I'd kick their ass, no question."

There came a snort from the other side of the classroom. "Yeah right Karen. You?"

Karen stood. "I'll kick your ass right now Tyler…"

Ms. Henderson cut her off. "Sit down Miss Nadler." Karen sat, glaring daggers at Tyler Crompton. "And though I am impressed you read the novel, I would appreciate if you didn't tell your classmates how to do their book reports." Karen shrugged and leaned back in her chair. "Would you like to continue Derek?"

Derek gave a shaky smile. "Uh… sure. So, the message of…"

…

"I can't believe you actually read it." Amie Reynolds dropped her sandwich down on top of Karen's copy of the English required reading for the week – War of the Worlds. Ms. Henderson had been so inspired by Derek's book report and Karen's outburst that she'd allocated it the reading for the week. Karen didn't mind – she'd already read it twice. "No, hold that – I can't believe you actually read." Amie sat down, grinning across the lunch table as Karen raised an eyebrow with a smile. "Bet I can find a talking book on iTunes."

"I'm just gonna watch the movie. Anything where Tom Cruise owns some crappy aliens is good enough for me." Craig, Amie's boyfriend, muttered as he joined them. "Though if those bastards up there do come down," he motioned wayward towards the direction of the alien ship hanging over Boston, "I hope they're more like the aliens in Signs, they were creepy."

"Yeah." Amie agreed with the laugh. "Then that Phoenix dude and Mel Gibson can come save us all." She grinned. "He'll beat those suckers down like he's drunk-driving through a gathering of Jews." Karen glanced across at her friend, Amie's own father Jewish. "What? I hate that anti-Semite piece of crap."

"Anyway, issue at hand – read the damn book." Karen finally spoke up. "It's pretty good actually. Scary. Not M. Night 'try-too-hard' who just confuses you until you think you're scared but really you're just lost… real scary. Like 'omg, humanity is screwed like Porky Pig at a fat guy convention'."

"You know the good thing about fat guy conventions? Everyone's too fat and lazy to get up and chase Porky." Craig waved his hand with a laugh. "He'll be fine!"

Amie laughed. "Hey, speaking of reading, cause apparently this lunch table just became the nerd table," Amie held her fingers up to her eyes in circles like glasses. Karen cast her eyes skyward. "Mayor of Penn said in the papers today that the aliens had clearly taken a wrong turn somewhere and accidentally landed over Boston." She laughed. "Guy's just pissed cause the last time anything happened in Philly it involved some minority getting beaten up."

Karen shook her head. "Wow, you are in a mood today." She pushed Amie's sandwich off her book and back at her. "Eat that and listen for once." Amie grinned and opened the sandwich. "This shit in class today about the aliens got me thinking – has anyone been up there and had a closer look yet? I mean, Obama came on TV last night, some massive broadcast on all channels, mom made me watch it, but he said the aliens were either not able to or had no intention of, communicating with Washington."

"So no 'take me to your leader?'" Craig said with a grin.

Karen chucked a cherry tomato from her salad at his head and hit. He glared at her as he wiped tomato juice from his face. "No you moron," she paused. "Well, yes, but my point is – what are they doing up there? Taking in the scenery? Don't know about you but if I rock up like 10,000,000+ miles from my home planet, I'm not gonna kip in Boston."

"Right. I'm rolling down to Aca-fuckin'-Pulco yo. Gonna chill on the beach, sweet talk some Mexican chicks – wanna see how I probe baby?" He coughed as Amie whacked him right across the chest. "Jeez Ames."

"1st: stop talking like you're 'tight dawg', 2nd: Karen has a point – why the hell are they here? They've been here two weeks now, doing what? Sitting up there scratches their butts going 'kay, Boston mapped, where to next?' Seriously, it's creepy as hell. My mom hates it. We have a northeast-facing kitchen – she pulled all the blinds down and keeps them down so she doesn't have to look at it. It's freakin' weird." She shuddered a little then glanced back at Karen. "So, what you saying? We stand underneath it and yell 'beam me up Scotty'?"

Karen shook her head. "The old water tower on Flynn St. I'm gonna break in there and climb it, right after lunch; you coming with?"

Amie groaned. "Can it wait 'til like, 4? I miss one more Cal class and old 'no-hope Harper' is gonna kick me out of the school." She smiled a little. "Again."

Craig just shook his head. "I hate heights." They both frowned at him as he glanced up. "What? I'm man enough to admit it – plunging to my death from a water tower is not my idea of a well-spent Tuesday afternoon."

"You're both losers. I'm going alone then." She put her hand flat on the table. "Give me your iPhone."

Amie frowned. "Why?"

"Because," Karen pulled out her cell phone. "My crappy old Nokia takes worse pictures than the first camera ever invented." She pushed her phone at Amie and slowly her friend took out her iPhone. Karen snatched it out of her hand with a smile. "Youtube – say hello Boston's sexy aliens." She held the phone up to her face as she pressed record on the camera. "This is Karen Nadler reporting from Winthrop High and I'm gonna bring you the best close-up footage of Boston's alien dudes ever. Alone," she turned the camera on Craig and Amie. "Because these two wimps are scared to break rules and climb water towers." She pointed the camera back to herself. "But I am just bad ass enough to do it. So hold tight people of Youtube land – I bring you… Martians."


	2. Up Above It All

**Disclaimer: **Falling Skies is not mine. Mass 'boo' right here. Yo, Steven, sell it to me! What do you mean 'spare $16 million'?

Better The Devil You Know

Karen Nadler

It might be the end of time, but no one told Karen Nadler… from invasion day to a puppet of the aliens, this is the story of how Karen went from Winthrop High's only survivor to narrator of the end of the world…

…

**Part****2:  
><strong>Up Above It All

"14:23 hours," Karen grinned as she held the iPhone above her head, looking up at it. "This is Karen Nadler reporting from the Winthrop water tower." She turned the phone up so it pointed up the ladder next to her. "I've just broken in and now it's time to climb." She gave the camera a thumbs-up. "Wish me luck." She ceased recording and tucked the phone into her pocket, tightening her backpack around her shoulders. Then, taking a deep breath, she started up the tower.

Things like skipping school, talking back at teachers and climbing water towers weren't a rare occurrence for Karen. It had only been a week since Karen had last skipped class, determined at that time to head up to a rally in Boston discussing the 'alien issue' as it had been then, but she'd been caught on her way to the train station by truant officers expecting Winthrop's seniors to find the rally an excuse to skip class. For many caught sneaking out that day it had been that, but not for Karen, she was actually determined to find some more information on this alien problem. From the day the creatures turned up above her home city Karen had been alarmed. Though she acted like a brat, your typical troublemaker, Karen was a smart girl. Her father seemed sure that her rebel streak came simply from the fact that she knew too much of the world, was disenfranchised by society, but it wasn't society that Karen hated, she just wanted more than Winthrop, Boston and suburban life. What that was she was unsure. Aside from books, soccer and video games, Karen had few things in life she liked. She lacked aim, and as a high school senior that was never a good thing, but when it came to priorities the future was always second. Right now the thing that had plagued her thoughts for the last two weeks hung in the sky above her.

As she reached the top of the tower she pulled the backpack off and sat down, pulling out the phone again as she caught her breath, and she started recording again. "So here we are: Flynn Street water tower. That was a fun climb." She chuckled breathlessly. "Anyway, I promised you aliens so," she pushed herself to her feet and moved around the water tower, holding the phone above her head. The shape of the alien ship had been the first thing anyone had noticed when it moved into town – not round and spinning like in the movies or faked videos on Youtube, the ship had more of a kite shape with a front like a normal passenger airplane. It seemed so… human. Maybe that was what had spooked everyone the most. It was like an oversized fighter jet. And there were the lights, soft red and blue lights that flashed at night, though they were quiet during the day. Right now as Karen looked up at the ship they were just like that, the ship dark… silent.

She moved around the water tower and saw the darkened outlines of what seemed to be a ramp of some sort, something like the back of a cargo plane, and Karen frowned at it. "Some sort of door by the looks of it." She turned the camera to face her. "I wonder if they're delivering alien pizza. I'll have pep…" she stopped as the phone buzzed and she stopped the recording to answer it. "Hey Karen!" She said with a laugh at the name on the screen.

"'Sup bitch." Amie laughed. "How's the little green men?"

"Avoiding me I think. I don't know what I did to upset them. Guess they heard my rabble-rousing and I've hurt their feelings." She looked back at the ship. "I wish I could get closer."

Amie laughed. "If only you could fly mole. So, when am I getting my phone back?"

"This your way of asking me when I'm coming down?" Amie murmured something like a 'yes'. "Soon. One more rotation and I'll come back to the land of the living. Don't miss me too much bi…" But Karen's sentence was punctuated when the alien ship above her whirred into life. The lights flickered on and a soft hum sounded. She frowned. "I think we woke them up."

"They're coming to get you so they can probe you."

"Oh yeah, that's just what I wanted to he…" but once again Karen's sentence was lost, this time by a bright blue and white light that shot down from the ship. She lowered the phone wordlessly as she watched it. The light flew towards the city then, about a half mile above the ground, it exploded in a flash of white. Karen averted her eyes, momentarily blinded and then lifted her head, blinking. She expected to see buildings crumbled, like a shockwave, but everything looked the same. She raised the phone to her ear but as it got closer she heard its pained whistle and she glanced down at the phone as it gave one last flicker then died. Giving it a soft shake she frowned. "What a piece of crap." Pushing it back into her pocket she walked to the edge of the water tower and looked down. Flynn Street was quiet beneath her, the suburban dead end street a decent enough distance from the heart of Winthrop, the school and shopping center. Nothing moved down there, it was silent and empty, though as Karen looked back towards Boston she saw a few differences to the city. The lights of the baseball stadium, which were on even during the day, were silent. A flashing billboard on the freeway was black. And, as Karen squinted she saw – the freeway was no longer moving. Moving back to her backpack Karen rummaged inside and withdrew her father's binoculars, pressing them to her eyes and assessing the city before her, watching as people on a main road a short distance away stepped out of their cars, their vehicles no longer moving. That was when Karen guessed what the white light was – it had disabled all power to the city. But why?

Turning to put the binoculars away she heard the sound of metal grating and Karen turned quickly, spotting the movement coming from above her, and she raised her eyes slowly to the sky, watching the door she'd been looking at earlier start to open. It was slow and Karen stood transfixed, as it seemed did many people below her, and a hush fell over the city of Boston. Now the power was out, the sound was off, everyone had come outside into the sunlight on the street. A cool, sunny March Tuesday. A beautiful Spring day. And the whole of Boston stood outside watching an alien ship open.

That was why the aliens had done what they did, Karen would realise later, they had lured the people of Boston out and to their deaths.

Out of the door came a burst of blue light and Karen's eyes followed it, but it faded in the clear sky, though like Karen many people's eyes had been trained on it. It distracted them as the smaller ships emerged from the hanger, like troops off a troop carrier, and they swarmed out into the sky like bees. Down on the ground some ran in fear for cover, others stood transfixed as the ships dropped low, emitting a soft cool white light. Karen shivered and then her knees gave away and she dropped to the metal grate beneath her, eyes fixed on the ships, fearing something was about to happen.

Then the alien ship above her gave a low, metallic roar, a hiss of jets and steam. Karen wouldn't hear that noise again for two more days, until she stood alone in the destruction of her family home, and the sound screamed in her ears. She raised her hands to her head and closed her eyes, opening them slowly as the sound stopped, but by then it had started – the end of the world had begun and Karen pushed herself to her feet as a bright blue ball flew from one of the ships nearby and crashed into the Winthrop Mall. It didn't explode like a bomb, nothing burned, it just seemed to explode in a burst of light, like a flasher, and then the Mall was gone.

Karen couldn't speak, couldn't scream, she just sat there shaking, tears running down her face as the ships spread far and wide. They headed from the high school, Karen's own street, the heart of Winthrop. One brought down the freeway nearby, cars and bodies tumbling to the ground, and Karen could only watch.

The end of the world had started and stranded, high above it all, there was nothing Karen Nadler could do…


	3. Footsteps On The Fallen

**Disclaimer: **Falling Skies is not mine. That is all. Creative huh?

**A/N: **Generally I can only write when I'm also watching the show I'm writing for. I get inspired by hearing their voices and then, when the show is over, run off and write. But, just your luck, I wrote this entire chapter in my head in a half-asleep state last night. Let's see if I can do my own sleep state any justice…

Better The Devil You Know

Karen Nadler

It might be the end of time, but no one told Karen Nadler… from invasion day to a puppet of the aliens, this is the story of how Karen went from Winthrop High's only survivor to narrator of the end of the world…

…

**Part 3:  
><strong>Footsteps On The Fallen

It was dusk before Karen dared to move down off the water tower. The world below her that had been so alive before was dead. She could almost hear the crickets filling the spaces where car horns and people's loud talking should have been. But no, it seemed they were gone too, not even crickets inhabited this desolate, harsh landscape. Rubble where houses should have been, the silence from the motorway, the cool wind picking up from the south. All of just told Karen Nadler that she was horribly, terribly, alone.

It had been an hour since the aliens had moved back into their ship. The hanger had closed as the last moved in, Karen watching them with one eye, too scared to move or even blink, in case they spotted her and took her out too. The invasion drew to a close but still she didn't move, afraid it was only the first, that they'd come back to finish the job – if there was anything left to finish. She'd seen Winthrop High eliminated, a bright ball of blinding white light that scarred Karen's iris, she had blinked when it hit, and when she opened her eyes again the school was gone. Rubble. That was all. There was still the chance of survivors, hope of there being some, but Karen couldn't bring herself to go see. Step over the bodies of people she knew. She could only pray for her friends, or she would, had she believed in all that shit. She didn't. Aliens had wiped out Boston. Where was God now?

Winthrop's middle school, where Karen's little sister would have been all day, was gone too. The highway, the mall, the council building, everything. Whole suburbs lay in ruins beneath her. The occupants… she didn't want to know about them. She had her direction – Wishart Street. The small, dead-end street off Collins Road, parallel to the train line. Six houses, a small park, and a two-story brick home with a well-maintained back yard. Her father's pride and joy, an old Ford Mustang parked in the driveway, her home. She wondered about her father, across town in the business district, but he was too far away now. 20 minutes by car. No, home was a 10-minute walk, she had to get there first.

The streets were empty for the first five minutes and then, practically giving her a heart attack, a young boy ran across the road in front of her. She almost fell over from surprise. Another ran after him, then a full-grown man, he stopped and assessed Karen as she walked down the middle of the main road, stepping around discarded cars, charred and broken, determined not to look and see if anyone were inside. She was thankful for the lack of bodies here on the side of the road. She passed three as she left Flynn Street. That was enough. The man, her first live adult, scanned her for a moment then spoke. "Get out of here!" He called at her, as if it weren't something she herself had thought, as if it were an original suggestion. "Something else is coming. I can feel it." His eyes rose to the Martian ship above them. Karen wanted to chastise him, tell him to stop being melodramatic, but she felt it too. It all felt so… unfinished. So she just nodded at him and he ran on after the two boys, his two boys she guessed, though she figured strangers weren't the children's worst enemy right now. She walked faster after seeing the man, the voice so pronounced in the once-busy but now silent main road, keeping his life to hold on to. Others lived. She passed faces in windows, heard voices of people in the distance calling for loved ones, but she moved on without pausing again. The bodies became more and more pronounced as she passed into the suburbs. Joggers, people with dogs (their animals lay with them, some dead, most just waiting for their master to stand again), bodies fell out of cars in front of Karen. She turned her eyes up to the tree line. Here the scars were everywhere. The trees were bare, dead, and the grass was brown. It was like the videos she'd seen about nuclear weapon attacks – every building that still stood had its windows blown out, trees stripped clean, fences and letterboxes lay on the ground. And the bodies, she dared to look just once, burned. They were burned. A heat ray. It was the best way she could describe it, a burning desire to pull out her copy of War of The Worlds in her backpack and read the description Wells had given of it. A heat ray, like an atomic weapon's after effects, had run through town and cleared the land. Scorched Earth policy, Karen recalled her history lessons from the Second World War, clear the land and start again. Was that their plan all along? Were the aliens here to clear the humans out and start again?

Finally, cutting across the park, Karen saw Wishart Street. Three houses still stood. None of those were hers. She paused as she looked at the rubble that had been her home, her father's car lay beneath it, and her breath held. Maybe her mother had been shopping, been out with a friend, been… her hopes consumed her mind for a minute and then she felt her feet finally start to move again and she ran towards the house. She stepped her way through the destroyed front living room, the stairwell and laundry still stood somehow, but the top floor was gone. She paused where the kitchen should have been, stepping lightly in case she trod on something she didn't want to, and scanned the rubble. Her mother wasn't there. She almost smiled, almost laughed, until she saw it. Just outside where the back door would have been, across the rubble and through the kitchen, she saw the foot. She ran towards it with her breath clutched in her chest and lifted up the mess of wood and brick that covered her mother's body. It took what felt like an hour, maybe more, before Karen could see her mother's entire frame. She wasn't burned like the others; she'd been crushed, knocked unconscious as the building fell atop her. Karen's jaw set for a second before the sobs built up inside her and she let out a soft 'no' that seemed to drag itself from her lips at an excruciatingly slow pace. Her small frame shook as she lay beside her mother, putting her arms on her, sobbing into her back. She still felt warm. Warm and safe beneath the rubble of her own home. Maybe she hadn't even seen the aliens? Maybe she'd been unconscious when she died? Maybe she hadn't suffered at all? As Karen sobbed she clung to those thoughts…

…

It was nightfall before Karen raised her tear-streaked, red face and took a breath. Cold, dark and quiet. She sat in the middle of the ruins of her own home, a lone figure moving in the desolate landscape around her, and realized she'd sobbed herself to sleep. But then, what had awoken her?

_Fisssh… whump._

It was the strangest sound Karen had ever heard or felt. She felt it before she heard it. It rattled the uneven earth beneath her feet, shook her to the core, so she was sure her heart started to beat irregularly. It repeated every ten seconds. She sat and listened for about a minute. And as she did it got louder and closer.

_Nuhhhhh…_

It was a metallic, whale-like call in the wind. Karen's breath actually froze in her chest. Fear gripped her heart. The metallic footfalls had intrigued her, the hiss like hydraulic brakes, but this call… so ominous. She turned away from her mother and looked through the mess of her home back towards the way she herself had come. Whatever was coming was coming that way, following her path, but moving slowly unlike she had been. Not driven, not going to something, just walking. Looking. Searching.

At that thought Karen jumped to her feet. Searching. Searching for survivors.

The words of the man on the main road echoed in her head. 'Something else is coming'. He was right. It had come. And it was coming this way right now.

Frozen in fear for a second, her eyes searched around her, looking for a place to hide. Nothing to climb, the bare trees gave her no protection, and the only thing that remained standing was the stairwell. Her eyes flashed to it and quickly she moved towards it. The stairwell. A piece of roofing had fallen in the space between the fifth stair and the floor, lodged there, a sliver of space in between. Karen gripped at it, the uneven edge ripping at the skin on her palm, but it budged. She threw herself into the gap, pulling her legs in behind her, crushing herself into that tiny space. Just in time. As she curled herself up in the darkness and looked through the tiny space she'd just entered she watched with horror as the monster stepped into her line of sight.

A robot? A metallic monster, twice the height of a human being, with arms and legs and a body like an oversized nut, round and silver and glossy. Lights flew out from its head and left arm, scanning the area around it, its eyesight she guessed, since it didn't seen to have any eyes. She'd later learn about the 'Mechs' as they came to be known, built like humanoids, something she spotted right there and then. Her eyes stayed glued to the monster as his blue light flashed across the rubble of her house then paused on her mother. It turned red, then blue again, and the light passed on. Karen closed her eyes and held her breath as it crossed over the stairwell but continued. It never hit Karen, hidden in the dark, just out of sight. And then the hydraulic brakes and metallic whumps moved on into the night.

Soon they were gone and once again Karen was alone…


End file.
